Monthly archives: February 2009

Feb

21

2009

-02.20.09- The eastern coast of the US was hit by a winter storm on Thursday, which brought snow, heavy rain and tornadoes. Further south, the tail end of the system brought thunderstorms, hail and tornadoes to Georgia and Alabama. Read more

Feb

21

2009

-02.18.09- Tropical Cyclone Innis was named yesterday as it continued to track off the east coast of Australia. The cyclone formed at the start of the week, and was initially forecast to make landfall on the New Caledonian islands on Thursday. It has since changed track and is now not expected not to make landfall. Read more

Feb

21

2009

-02.18.09- TOWNS on the NSW mid-north coast were bracing for further flooding last night after torrential rains and flooded rivers left thousands of people isolated and others desperately sandbagging their homes and businesses. Read more

Feb

21

2009

-02.18.09- Police believe they have found the bodies of almost everyone killed in Australia’s wildfire disaster and the current death toll of 201 is not likely to rise dramatically, a senior commander said Wednesday. Read more

Feb

21

2009

-02.13.09- For months now, yellowed pastures, cracked soil and dead livestock have been the landscape of what otherwise are the most productive farming areas of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. Scientists say it is so far impossible to determine if the drought is a manifestation of climate change processes. Read more

Feb

21

2009

-02.18.09- Island-state Singapore faced the largest number of bushfires in nearly a decade in January, thanks to an unusually long dry spell, the government’s anti-fire agency said Wednesday. Read more

Feb

21

2009

-02.19.09- Areas with lowland permafrost are likely to shrink in northern Sweden. Warmer summers and more winter precipitation are two of the reasons. This is shown in a new dissertation from Lund University in Sweden. For several years, physical geographer Margareta Johansson at Lund University has studied lowland permafrost in peat mires surrounding Abisko. �At one of our sites, permafrost has completely disappeared from the greater part of the mire during the last decade,� she says. Read more

Feb

21

2009

-02.17.09- As he watched his neighbors cart back drinkable water from 15 kilometers away, Xue Maolin had mixed feelings: The menace of drought has been temporarily curbed, but where is the permanent cure for water shortage? For the 81-year-old farmer in Xiaojing Village of Hebei’s Shexian County, the sight is reminiscent of a rare drought he experienced 50 years ago when locals had to spend the whole day carrying buckets of water on shoulder poles from a river more than50 kilometers away. Read more

Feb

21

2009

-02.17.09- With a recent flurry of winter storms doing little to dampen California’s latest drought, the nation’s biggest public utility voted on Tuesday to impose water rationing in Los Angeles for the first time in nearly two decades. Read more